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Episode 104: Old Friends
Old Friends is the fourth episode of the first season and the fourth episode overall. Notes * Clients: Bill Reese * Bad Guys: Jan Haseck, Carl Wilhelm, Oscar Wilhelm, Brandon Diggs Synopsis Michael's friend Bill asks for the spy's help in freeing his daughter from a prostitution ring. Meanwhile, Michael dodges multiple assassination attempts. Spy Facts * You want to blend into a new city, you better be up on local sports. * Covert ops has its perks. You travel, make your own hours and expense most of your meals. The downside? Lots of people want you dead. * If it looks like you're about to get into a fight that could get you killed, try starting another one. * When booby-trapping your home, it's important to keep it simple. Make it easy to set up, easy to disable. * One more thing about booby traps. Make sure your friends know not to drop by unannounced. * You can learn good self-defense fighting with students in a class, but great self-defense - that you pick up fighting with your family. * Spies go to bars for the same reason people go to libraries – full of information, if you know how to ask. * The key to a good knife defense is to control the knife hand and strike with everything you've got. * Fighting is often about tactical retreats like running away from two knives. It's also about knowing how to make the body count unacceptable. * Pimps are all about show. High end or low end, they like to stand out. * Compulsive gamblers get a lot of practice seeing people bluff so the good news is they can usually pick up on people's tells. The bad news is when they're wrong, the consequences are very expensive. * Any good operative is careful not to leave much behind. Everyone gets careless though, and even the littlest things can turn out to be useful. A receipt, a paperback, room service records. Every bit helps. * A rescue attempt is hard enough when it's someone who actually wants to be rescued. It doesn't matter whether it's a brother with a compulsive gambling problem or a girl who thinks she's about to launch her modeling career. So you eliminate escape options, keep a low profile, but no matter what you do, you'll still have someone screaming bloody murder in the back of your car. * Some situations just come down to probabilities – the chance that an assassin with a handgun can hit you at 50 yards, and the number of shots he can get off might have a one-in-five chance of taking a bullet, and maybe a one-in-10 chance of dying. Or a hundred percent chance of getting blown away by a shotgun wired to a door. A ricochet's usually not deadly, but it sure feels that way. * Any decent criminal will change his plans at mention of the word "cops". * Spend a lot of time in countries without hospitals, you pick up a few things. * Running an operation, you can't let personal feelings get in the way. It's about planning and execution. Not about being angry. Although occasionally you may get a little angry. * There's a reason family's always a good source of leverage. Whether it's a brother that always owes people money, or a brother stuck in the trunk of a car. You can't really turn your back on them. * The drive home is often a grueling experience for someone you just rescued, especially if they were unaware of their situation. They ask a lot of questions, you fill them in on the answers. And then it dawns on them. The truth. It can be a little overwhelming. Full Recap Prologue :You want to blend into a new city, you better be up on local sports. Michael and Sam are sitting in a local bar, Sam quizzing Mike on sports statistics - Michael not being anxious to let his new hometown find out he's been flying around the world for the last ten years. :Covert ops has its perks. You travel, make your own hours and expense most of your meals. The downside? Lots of people want you dead. Michael becomes distracted when he sees a Czech assassin from the old days, Jan Haseck, walk in and sit at a table. :If it looks like you're about to get into a fight that could get you killed, try starting another one. Making impromptu "brass knuckles" out of a bent butter knife, Michael pretends to be drunk and picks a fight with a loudmouth in the bar, letting the fight spill over to the table of the surprised assassin, who is taken off guard and rendered helpless by an elbow to the throat. Michael greets Jan, "Welcome to Miami, ass****" in his native language, before delivering a knockout punch with the butter knife. Michael and Sam run out of the bar. Part One :When booby-trapping your home, it's important to keep it simple. Make it easy to set up, easy to disable. Back at the apartment with Fiona, Michael rigs a shotgun to the door of the apartment, while she notices Jan lurking outside in his car. She suggests that the simplest solution is to have Sam reach out to his F.B.I. contacts, but Michael says there's a good chance than Jan, another member of the espionage community, may know something about the reason for Michael's burn notice, so Michael doesn't want him picked up yet. Michael gets a call from his mother, who neatly manipulates him into coming to her house by threatening to put her hand down the supposedly malfunctioning disposal if Michael won't come to check it out for her. Sam arrives, strolling through the front door and freezing at the sight of the shotgun aimed at his head, which doesn't fire (Fiona laments that if he'd arrived just a few minutes later, Michael would have had the trigger set). :One more thing about booby traps. Make sure your friends know not to drop by unannounced. Sam complains that Michael's performance has led to him being blacklisted from the bar, one of his favorites, and demands to know why Michael staged the fight. Michael, conscious that Sam is still informing on him to the F.B.I. and not wanting Jan picked up yet, deflects the question and asks Sam to give him a ride to his mother's house. :You can learn good self-defense fighting with students in a class, but great self-defense - that you pick up fighting with your family. Arriving at Madeline's, Michael is jumped by his brother, Nate. The fight is brief, and both are scolded by Madeline for not getting along better. Michael protests that the last time he saw Nate, he'd taken out 10 credit cards in Michael's name and lost Michael's rental car in a poker game, not to mention hitting him in the back of the head with a phone book. Madeline is oblivious to the truth, as usual, seeing only her fantasy vision of the perfect family. She even admits calmly to lying about the disposal to get Michael to come and talk to Nate. And she tells Michael that Nate has come because somebody needs his help. Nate explains that Madeleine has told him about Michael's new gig "helping people", and an old friend's daughter has gone missing. Michael rapidly figures out that Nate has already accepted both the job and a cash advance. Prying the money from his gambling brother's pocket, Michael leaves, intent on returning the money. In his conversation with the old friend, Bill Reese, they learn that his daughter, Jenna, is 18, so the police won't help. Bill says Jenna ran away after they argued over her boyfriend, Brandon Diggs, who claimed to be a modeling scout and promised her a career. The only number Bill had to reach Jenna with has been disconnected, and Bill is desperate. He innocently hands over the rest of the "fee" Nate quotes, a total of $3,000.00. His only lead is a picture of Brandon, taken with Jenna. Reluctantly, Michael agrees to take the job, taking the money to cover expenses but refusing to let Nate near it. Sam tracks down the cell phone records of the disconnected number, putting him in contact with some of Brandon's friends, and learning the name of the bar where he usually hangs out. :Spies go to bars for the same reason people go to libraries – full of information, if you know how to ask. Michael, Nate and Fiona go to the bar, where Nate's clumsy approach to the bartender is met with cool hostility. Michael overrides his brother, pretending to be a Mercedes dealer who sold a car to Brandon but got his address wrong. This yarn, and a discreet cash tip, nudges the bartender to admit that Brandon can be found in the V.I.P. room. Michael and Nate start bickering, until Fiona cuts in and suggests that she be the one to get Brandon - who will be far more inclined to leave the bar with her than with either of the Westen boys. Brandon, expecting a one-night stand with Fiona, is surprised to be confronted in his own car by Michael. He admits to having recruited Jenna for an "escort service" (i.e., a prostitution ring) run by the Wilhelm brothers. Michael tells Brandon to "un-recruit" Jenna, immediately, and Brandon says the girls are guarded 24/7 by armed thugs. Michael's mood takes a dive - another "simple" job that has become much more complicated. After some research, Sam fills Michael in on the Wilhelms - by night they're scumbag pimps, but by day they're known in Miami as modeling agents, very active on the Miami charity circuit - a perfect way, Michael notes, for them to meet wealthy men looking for a good time. Michael tells Sam to find out the name of their next charity event. :Any good operative is careful not to leave much behind. Everyone gets careless, though and even the littlest things can turn out to be useful. A receipt, a paperback, room service records. Every bit helps. Fiona has been tracking Jan and lets Michael know he has left the hotel. Michael uses his ingenuity to gain entrance to the room, looking for clues about Jan's mission. He finds an empty cup from a hot dog joint and checks the room service orders. :The key to a good knife defense is to control the knife hand and strike with everything you've got. Jan catches Michael in the corridor and a knife fight breaks out. Michael is holding his own until the assassin pulls a second knife. :Fighting is often about tactical retreats like running away from two knives. It's also about knowing how to make the body count unacceptable. Michael jumps on a crowded elevator, knowing the body count would be unacceptable to Jan... espionage is about not being noticed. Part Two :Pimps are all about show. High end or low end, they like to stand out. At the event, Michael gets the Wilhelms' attention by bidding against them for a couture evening gown. :Compulsive gamblers get a lot of practice seeing people bluff so the good news is they can usually pick up on people's tells. The bad news is when they're wrong, the consequences are very expensive. Nate uses his ability to read people's tells to instigate Michael to bid more than he'd like to, but the ploy works. Michael doesn't win the dress, but does get invited to the Wilhelms' next party. That evening, Michael locates Jenna quickly at the party, but isn't allowed much conversation with her. They do talk long enough for Michael to know she truly believes this is her shot at a huge modeling career and won't leave willingly. He also learns that she believes she is leaving in a few days for a "photo shoot" in Dubai. When Carl Wilhelm pulls Michael away from Jenna, Michael expresses interest in "meeting" her in private, but Carl explains that she does not service the Wilhelms' "domestic" clients, instead she has been earmarked for working overseas, in the Middle East. Having learned that the Wilhelms run their young, unsuspecting prostitutes out of the country, Michael realizes time is critical. Part Three Michael and Nate visit Bill to fill him in, and Bill immediately advocates calling the police. The problem is, the police won't do anything as long as Jenna believes she is simply flying overseas for a modeling job. Bill, frantic, grabs a baseball bat from his closet and says they might as well go to the Wilhelms; compound and get Jenna out, but Michael says Bill will only get himself hurt or killed, and possibly Jenna too. Michael promises Bill that he and Nate can get her out safely. Though as Michael and Nate leave the house, Michael admits that he has no idea how to do this. Michael discusses strategy over lunch with Fiona and Sam. Fiona is all for storming the Wilhelms' compound, breaking Jenna out and killing the Wilhelms as a bonus. Sam objects to any plan that risks getting themselves killed, not to mention Jenna. Michael cuts through their arguing, saying they will snatch Jenna as she is being driven to the airport. Sam warns that they have little time, since there are only two direct flights to Dubai from Miami each week, and the next one is tomorrow. Michael is interrupted by a call from Madeline, telling him Nate has been hurt. Back at Madeline's house, a handful of "enforcers" came to beat up Nate and remind him of his gambling debts. Nate wants his half of the job money now, but Michael is convinced that Nate will simply gamble it away rather than pay off his debt, Nate walks off in anger. :A rescue attempt is hard enough when it's someone who actually wants to be rescued. It doesn't matter whether it's a brother with a compulsive gambling problem or a girl who thinks she's about to launch her modeling career. So you eliminate escape options. Keep a low profile. But no matter what you do, you'll still have someone screaming bloody murder in the back of your car. While preparing the car at his mother's house, Michael hears that Nate went to his house, to get his share of the money - the house Michael rigged with a shotgun in case anyone unfriendly entered. Michael jumps into Nate's truck and speeds to his house, where Nate is trying to jimmy the door open. Michael gets out of the truck and yells a warning to Nate, only to get shot at by Jan. :Some situations just come down to probabilities – the chance that an assassin with a handgun can hit you at 50 yards, and the number of shots he can get off might have a one-in-five chance of taking a bullet, and maybe a one-in-10 chance of dying. Or a hundred percent chance of getting blown away by a shotgun wired to a door. With Nate not hearing Michael's warnings, or simply ignoring them, Michael has no choice but to break cover and risk being shot by Jan. A ricochet bullet hits Michael in the back of the shoulder, but the sound of the gunfire draws Nate's attention and he pulls out a revolver and drives Jan off. :A ricochet's usually not deadly, but it sure feels that way. Part Four While Sam and Fiona are lying in wait outside the Wilhelms' compound, Sam frets that Michael has not shown up, and without him they don't have enough hands to snatch Jenna safely. As the Wilhelms' car exits the compound carrying Jenna to the airport, Fiona declares that she will do the job herself, if Sam isn't willing to help. Exasperated, Sam hops out of the car and says he has things covered. Before she can ask what he is doing, there is a squeal of brakes and a crash. Fiona hops out to see Sam sliding off the hood of the Wilhelms' car, moaning about his back. Fiona quickly assumes the role of distraught wife/girlfriend, threatening to call 911, while Sam re-assures her that it was an accident, and he is sure the cops will sort things out. :Any decent criminal will change his plans at mention of the word "cops". When Jenna protests that they will miss the plane to Dubai, Carl tells her not to worry, they will catch the next day's plane... no criminal sticks to his original plan when 911 is being dialed. Carl slips some cash to Sam as an inducement not to call the police, and the Wilhelms slink back through their gate. Having bought them another 24 hours to rescue Jenna, Sam grouses that Mike better have a good excuse for not being there. :Spend a lot of time in countries without hospitals... you pick up a few things. Michael teaches Nate how to remove the bullet from the wound, a task Nate enjoys tremendously. Sam walks in on this and wants the scoop, but Michael tells him it was a drive-by gang thing to protect Sam from having to tell the Feds anything genuine. He also sets Fiona on Jan's trail. She has learned that Jan supervises the preparation of his food by the hotel staff personally. Michael, sensing something odd, assigns Fiona to find out why. He receives a call from Madeline's cell phone, but it's Nate, telling him Bill's been hurt. At Bill's house, Bill is rinsing blood off his cut knuckles, explaining that, when he didn't hear from Michael or Nate, he went to the Wilhelms' compound to get Jenna himself - he didn't even get past the gate before the guards beat him up and threw him off. He accuses Michael of forgetting about his friend, and Michael and Nate assure him together that they will do what they promised. :Running an operation, you can't let personal feelings get in the way. It's about planning and execution. With time short, Michael decides to modify his kidnap plan. When Oscar Wilhelm's car exits their compound, it is blocked by a truck, and Michael smashes the car window with a crowbar and abducts Oscar. "You pissed me off!" is his explanation. When Oscar warns them who his brother is, Michael pistol-whips him and shoves him roughly into the trunk of Michael's car. :...Although occasionally you may get a little angry. Michael and Nate meet with Carl on the beach, where Carl demands his brother's release. The Westen brothers demand that Carl agree to let Jenna go and return all the money earned from the prostitution to the girls themselves. Additionally, to help Jenna accept the situation, he requires that the pimp tell Jenna exactly what would have been facing her in Dubai. To help Carl along, Nate shows him pictures of Oscar tied up in a car trunk, casually informing him that they are gradually reducing his meal allowance each day, and soon they will be down to "soup and sugar packets." As the Westens walk away, Nate makes a pitch for keeping some of the Wilhelms' money for themselves, since the girls don't really know how much there was to begin with. Michael doesn't answer, but he doesn't hit Nate either, which is an improvement. :There's a reason family's always a good source of leverage. Whether it's a brother that always owes people money, or a brother stuck in the trunk of a car. You can't really turn your back on them. The exchange is made at the Wilhelms' home, and Michael takes a shaken Jenna away, introducing himself as a friend of her father. :The drive home is often a grueling experience for someone you just rescued, especially if they were unaware of their situation. They ask a lot of questions, you fill them in on the answers. And then it dawns on them: the truth. It can be a little overwhelming. As Jenna walks into her father's home, she falls into his arms without a word and begins sobbing. A grateful Bill looks over her shoulder to thank Michael, but he is already gone. Later that night, Jan is enjoying a hot dog at a stand advertised on an empty cup that Michael found in his hotel room. When Jan begins choking and gasping, he fumbles in his pocket for an epinephrine injector. Michael appears, plucks the epi-pen out of his hand and holds it out of reach. Michael casually informs Jan that he sprinkled some crushed peanuts onto Jan's hot dog, having learned from the hotel chef that Jan is deathly allergic. Now the only thing stopping Jan from asphyxiating to death is the epi-pen in Michael's hand. Michael wants to know why he was burned, knowing that Jan, a professional, must have checked out his situation before accepting the hit. Jan swears he doesn't know; all he knows is that plenty of people from Michael's past want him dead, and now that he is burned, no one is protecting him. Michael demands more information, but Jan passes out from being unable to breathe. With a sigh, Michael injects Jan with the epi-pen and zip-ties his leg to the picnic bench, calling Sam, so he can send the Feds and an ambulance. The next day he learns from Sam that someone with much higher clearance than the Feds took Jan from federal custody and put him in a holding cell, leaving him with his shoe laces, with which Jan was presumed to have committed suicide. Michael is chilled. Even Sam points out it's basic procedure to confiscate anything like shoelaces and suspects that Jan was murdered. Wakened by a banging noise the next morning, Michael finds a plant and a smiley-face balloon delved to his doorstep, with a note saying: "Take care of that shoulder and we'll be in touch soon". It's signed "Your Old Friends". Cast Main * Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen * Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne * Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe * Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen Recurring * Seth Peterson as Nate Westen * Marc Macaulay as Harris * Brandon Morris as Lane Guest * Eric Lange as Bill Reese * Ilia Volok as Jan Haseck * Mark Totty as Carl Wilhelm * William Haze as Oscar Wilhelm * Tino Sutras as Brandon Diggs * Susie Abromeit as Jenna Reese Trivia * The Sandbar, Sam's favorite bar he says he can never go back to now that Michael caused such a ruckus, is a real bar in Coconut Grove. * In the bar, Michael calls Jan "kamarad", which supposedly translates as "ass****" in Czech. In fact, "kamerad" is German for "comrade"; while the nearest Czech word for "ass****" is "Kretén". ''Presumably the "ass****" was simply implication and tone, rather than a direct translation. * Michael said "Vitej v miami, kamarade" in Czech which means "Welcome to Miami my friend". * Fiona says she has been on the F.B.I.'s "Most Wanted List" several times. * Michael admits to Jan that he is allergic to pollen. * This is the second episode in which Sam and Fiona pose as a couple to deceive the bad guys (after "Identity"). Continuity Errors * When Michael is at the hotel, he comes off the stairs on the fourth floor, but when he gets in the elevator, it clearly says he's on the seventh floor. * When Michael views Jan's room service bill, it says he ate ''mixed nuts from the minibar. But Jan's nut allergy would mean he probably wouldn't risk removing the packages. 104 Category:Season 1 Category:Season 1 Episodes